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Ep4 – Blood, Toil, Tears, And Sweat
On May 10th 1940 Germany invaded Belgium, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands; Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom upon the resignation of Neville Chamberlain. The United Kingdom invaded Iceland, and Belgium declared a state of emergency. As the new prime minister, Churchill was called on to form a wartime coalition government. On May 13,…
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Ep3 – Why We Need To Avoid Taboos
I wrote this next piece about a year ago while pondering the trend that was emerging to ensure that everyone has a “safe space” to protect them from ideas they don’t like. Hi I’m jack. I decided to flex my oratory muscles by recording myself speaking out loud. And since I”m doing that, I decided…
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Ep2 – We Choose To Go To The Moon
On September 12 1962 John F. Kennedy gave a speech at Rice University where he declared his plan to send man to the moon within the decade. I chose this as the first speech I would practice because it serves as a constant source of inspiration to me. This speech gives me chills each time…
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Ep1 – “For if Achillês is left alone to fight…” – Zeus Cloudgatherer
The literature of humanity that has stayed with us taps into the deepest part of how we perceive our existence. The stories that our ancestors have crafted and passed down to us resonated with them. The stories that made it down to us, made it through the filter of time because those stories said something…
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The Privacy / Convenience Polarity is a Myth
There is a myth, that if you want to have privacy, it will be at the expense of convenience; and if you want convenience, it will be at the expense of privacy. They say that is the way things have to be, but it really doesn’t have to be this way. Open up your iPhone…
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SUPER Simple React webpack Tutorial, so you can start ‘Getting Started’
Update: This was written before create react app came out. Use that, it’s awesome. I was annoyed by how many people are trying to sound smart in their tutorials, and thus not really helping anything. I wanted a simple “Here is what you need to get started” tutorial and lost a day chasing rabbits down…
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Say: “Alexa, turn on the living room lights”
Update: It’s creepy, don’t do it. Say it. No, really. Say it aloud. You might feel silly the first time. But the second time it feels great. Especially because Amazon Echo actually works. We were sold the hype of Siri. Sadly, Siri just doesn’t have the knowledge to understand conversational requests, nor the power to…
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Pondering Sam Harris’ thoughts on digital backdoors
Since my last post about encryption vs. security the public debate has exploded due to Tim Cook’s response to the request by the FBI to create a back door in an Apple device. In his most recent podcast Sam Harris weighed in as well. I always look forward to Harris’ perspective on a topic. He…
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On Encryption VS Security
There has been a debate going on behind the scenes, or not so behind the scenes: the political legislatures vs. technologists pertaining to encryption. There are bad people in the world, communicating to plan bad things. Law enforcement used to be able to get warrants and peer into those communications, safe-houses, or property. Today, when…
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How to Back up Your Database on Vagrant Halt
I’ve been exploring Vagrant lately. At work we need a better development workflow, and at home I’ve been reaping the benefits as well. One of the nice aspects of Vagrant is the ephemeral nature it gives to your environment. You can spin up a development box quickly and easily with a single command vagrant up…